Choices, choices, choices…
Looking back on some of her renovation decisions after 20 years of living in her Breton property, Caroline Zilboorg thinks she might have done a few things differently
T
he excitement of deciding to buy a property in France cannot be
underestimated, followed by the ups and downs of internet searches, visits and the thrill of finally finding ‘the one’. Whether you purchase a
renovation project (as I did) or a ready-to-move-into apartment or house, there are inevitably changes you’ll want to make. Maybe it will only be ‘cosmetic changes’ (always more than cosmetic, in my experience); painting a wall here and changing a socket there. Perhaps it’s a bit more challenging: new electrics, heating system and double glazing. A renovation project might involve everything from knocking down walls to the installation of bathrooms and a kitchen or even a roof where none existed before.
BENEFIT OF HINDSIGHT In all cases, however, there will be aesthetic and practical choices that end up having more of an effect than you at first imagined. Was shocking pink paint really the way to go on the bathroom walls? No problem – you can change a painted wall with another tin or two in a less strident tone. Brown and turquoise tiles, a trendy colour combination of the 2010s, are less easy to change. As are misplaced sockets and switches, misjudged distances between tap and sink or even missing bits, like exterior lights, taps and sockets, the latter so useful for lots of outside jobs and essential for charging electric cars (my gîte guests increasingly ask about a charging point on the property. It’s important to think not
only about how you will use the property now, but how it may be used in the future by you, your family and visitors, or
even new owners. No one has a crystal ball but it’s important to think beyond current trends and what may even become obligatory in a world in which tastes change and the climate and global economy require new ways of doing things.
PLAN FOR THE FUTURE DIY and what may initially seem economical solutions may not be the wisest way forward. Redoing the caulking on old single-glazed windows, keeping ‘original’ but rotting wooden doors, repointing all the beautiful interior stone walls and leaving them exposed – all these temptations may cause problems in the long term. For example, the new DPE
(the French government’s ‘diagnostique de performance energétique’, energy performance diagnosis) – required when selling a property and worth looking at closely when buying one – rates a property in large measure on the basis of insulation. Insulation of external walls
either from the outside or from the inside (in both cases covering up that original stonework is one of the criteria as is double glazing and exterior doors that close without letting drafts in.
Heating is another area the
DPE takes into consideration. With subsidies available from the French government for a variety of ecological installations, just relying on a traditional open fireplace or even a woodburner to heat your home isn’t a good idea. The DPW considers whether wood, gas, oil or electricity is used for heating and even whether your hob relies on gas, traditional electricity or induction. Although I did my best, I
certainly didn’t do everything right when renovating my granite house in Brittany back in 2000. It had a decent roof and was structurally sound, very much what the French would consider ‘habitable’ – after all, the family who had owned it since it was built in 1913 had indeed lived in it continuously. The barn that I wanted to
incorporate into the living area had a beaten-earth floor, however, and there was only a thin layer of concrete poured directly onto bare earth on the ground floor of the main house. It had one toilet and a primitive shower in a separate space, created by boarding up one of the front doors. The staircase was in good nick up to the first floor, and if it became rather rickety as it continued into the
attic area on the second floor… Well, the family only went upstairs to store hay, so even a ladder would have done the job for them, if not for me and my husband and our four nearly adult children. I happily took on the
responsibility of replacing all the doors and windows, moving interior walls, insulating external walls, and putting in a new kitchen and four new bathrooms in the main house as well as converting the pigsty into a well-equipped gîte. All this was well beyond the
Caroline and husband Tom's lovely home in Brittany 68 FRENCH PROPERTY NEWS: May/June 2024
DIY we were inclined or able to do. The children helped us to knock down walls with great enthusiasm and were good up to a point at the almost endless sweeping and tidying and cleaning up after one job and another – never underestimate the dust and debris caused by each intervention, however minor or straightforward it might seem! Cutting tiles, for instance, sends dust everywhere, and even the installation of a toilet and sink can involve smeared grease and tracked dirt and unused screws
© CAROLINE ZILBOORG
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